In the competitive game of paintball, it is important to have an uninterrupted supply of paintballs fed to a marker/gun at a pre-established speed. In a basic configuration without a loader, paintballs are housed in a hopper above the marker and are gravity-fed into the marker through a feeder tube. However, this variant is not suitable for competitive play because paintballs often get jammed in the hopper on their way to the feeder tube, requiring the player to give the marker a good shake to dislodge the paintball jam in order to continue playing.
During a game, time is precious and if a player has to stop to shake the marker, this delay can cost the game. Therefore, loader technology was introduced into the game of paintball to provide a player with a guaranteed steady stream of paintball ammunition at the squeeze of the trigger.
There is known U.S. Pat. No. 6,213,110 for a Rapid Feed Paintball Loader with a rotatable drive cone with a plurality of vertical fins. This apparatus feeds paintballs into the inlet or feeder tube of a paintball gun at a steady rate. However, the design of this invention necessitates a certain height to allow for the drive cone shape, and does not line up each paintball several balls in advance before feeding it into the feeder tube.
There is also known U.S. Pat. No. 6,415,781 for a Bulk Loader for Paintball Gun. This invention comprises a vertically-mounted screw configured to push paintballs into a feeder tube. This invention requires a relatively large screw mounted inside a paintball hopper; not only does this design consume valuable space intended for paintballs, but the apparatus relies on a microswitch to be activated.
There is also known U.S. Pat. No. 6,502,567 for a Rapid Feed Paintball Loader with Pivotable Deflector. As in U.S. Pat. No. 6,213,110, the device does not line up a set number of paintballs in advance for an assured stream of ammunition.